BackgoundKarl was born Prince Ernst Heinrich Hesse, the fifth son of Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse by Rhine, and found it difficult to find a position for himself in life. He was a quiet and devout child who took the teaching of the protestant church of his family very seriously. He always intended to join the church, but with the Catholic Church the power in the New Reich, this was not considered a good move for one of noble blood. His plan was always to move to England, where his great uncle Philip was prince consort to queen Elizabeth. There he could find a respectable career in the anglican church. To this end he attended English at Heidelburg University, and intended to follow this with theology at Cambridge. However, for him university would spell disaster.

Whilst studying at Heidelburg, Ernst discovered that he was to be tainted with a family "curse". Ernst had never been much interested in girls as a teenager, something he felt was a sign that he was destined for a celibate life in the clergy. However, when he entered university and became involved with the student gangs and grew close to his fellow male students, he discovered that he was interested in men. The men of the Hesse family had been known for this "unnatural" tendacy for many generations, and it was something that Ernst 's father detested vehemently -- many believe that he was abused by his own father. Ernst, being of strong faith merely saw this as a test of his faith, and resisted the temptation well. However, in his final year he fell in love. The man in question was Karl Arendt, an older student and leader of the Studentenverbindungen. Ernst was actively wooed and seduced by Karl and eventualy succumbed to his charm. The months that followed were some of the happiest in his life.

However, it was notto last for long. Ernst soon realised that Karl had been leading him on and had no intention of making the kind of commitment he had made to Karl. A brutal duel ensued, but Ernst was no fighter. Karl left Ernst for dead in the gutter iof a Heidelberg back alley, his face slashed and his arm severed at the elbow. Bleeding to death, if it were not for a Street Templar passing by, Ernst would have died there and then. He was returned to his family, who paid to have his arm replaced and kept him hidden from society. However, Ernst's father wanted revenge on his son's assailent and sent investigators to Heidelberg to get to the bottom of the situation. It did not take long before he discovered the affair with Karl. The Grand Duke paid to have Karl quietly killed in an "accident" and confronted his son. Ernst could not lie and wept for his father's forgiveness, but it was not forthcoming. Ernst was disowned and kicked out of the house, the world told that he never recovered from his wounds. It was at this point that Ernst took the name Karl, and adopted the surname "Reeper", a ropemaker, to signify the noose around the neck of his life that was Karl Arendt.

In a last gesture of kindness, his brother paid for his passage to England. Here he went north, looking for employment. He soon found that his keen mind and amoral outlook on life made him the ideal candidate for specialist work for unscrupolous industrialists. He took a job with one Laxton Waverley, and became an invaluable asset in dealing with guild upstarts and rival industrialists, applying his knowledge of industrial law with a solid gold-plated etherium cybernaughtic fist. However, Laxton didn't pay as much as Karl felt he was worth, so he handed in his notice, leaving Laxton under police investigation. Since he has worked freelance for other industiralists and crime lords of Birmingham.

AppearanceKarl is a tall and slim man in his late twenties. he has a scar down one cheek, that has been well repaired and is not immediately obvious. He wears quality business attire and, usually, a stern expression on his face. The quality of his cybernaughtic arm is unmistakeable, and he attempts to hide it from first sight.

PersonalityKarl is distant and cold, and rarely pleasant company. However, he has not forgotten his manners and mellows when in the company of others of his birth status, despite a reluctance to reveal his former position in life. He is in much turmoil, searching for answers from a god he feels has abandoned him, and will regularly turn to the bible, but as he can see only damnation for himself, he finds little reason to turn the other cheek.

I like this topic, too. Here's a character I added to the pregens when I ran "Just a Delivery" for my Friday night group and at a convention. (You'll see references to a couple of those PCs in his background.)

Euripides Blake, Adventurer / Human / BrokerDescription: The son of a wealthy politician and a famous playwright, Euripedes found the life of luxury “oh so droll.” He has meticulously crafted the image of a devilishly handsome raconteur, willing to seek out new dangers and new passions. When he’s not seducing some debutante or otherwise creating scandals for his family, he is engaged in scholarly pursuit of his greatest interest (aside from himself): the occult.

In his travels, he has also learned much about mysticism and the martial arts, and he is convinced that more knowledge can be revealed through the study of the Etherscope — a belief that introduced him to the mysterious Nicholas Henson. His research has also brought him in contact with Sneevly Smite, and Euripides loves to join Smite’s and Henson’s frequent companions in their exploits — even if he’s not always invited.

Appearance and a Bit of Background:
Her natural charisma is more personality than looks. A little light on the top half, a touch heavy on the bottom half with a cute face, kind of a button sort of nose and dainty chin. She is the oldest of four children, but no longer a child herself. Her parents are good hard working middle class citizens, her father is a dockworker while her mother did odd jobs cleaning as well as tending to their household. From an early age Bethie had to help out about the house, and slowly developed a love of movement, a love of riding or driving a steam car as fast as it would go. This interest developed into a love of the steam car, as well as a start to learning about how to work and repair them.
She has done some freelance work as a mechanic to make some money, mostly working on the vehicles of the local cab drivers, cabbies as they are known, giving good work for lower pay than a male might get, but gaining some exposure and skills as well. During the times working on the steam cars, she would take them out for a spin to make sure they were repaired, finding a flair for being behind the wheel that she cultivated into a skill that she is proud of, even if it is not that ladylike in her mothers opinion.
Well now her looks, short dark black hair, a few lighter shades in there from exposure to the sun without a hat while doing work or chores. She has strong hands, decent arms, and very strong legs from working the pedals of the cars. When she cares to take time to clean up she is a pretty girl, more pretty than attractive with a touch of will that many modern men still find intimidating. But she is a female and enjoys quiet, painting (usually whitewashing or repainting cars though), or crafts like knitting or croqueting. But she has no real talent for it, and does not do all that well, the same with her cooking, not something she is very good at.

Things she has with her normally:
Typical dress out on the town, the streets are sensible ankle high laced boots, if shopping/recreation a skirt and blouse with short jacket and for work then it is trousers and a long sleeved blouse and the same jacket over it. She wears a pair of driving gloves (Per Upload Etherpunk stats Simple weapon prof) to protect her hands from the steering wheel. Otherwise she is not armed normally, trusting more to kindness than not. She does not have any scope tabs, has never been in the Scope at all. She does know how to use simple weapons but does not like violence, preferring to run or hide or simply avoid the confrontation.

Just a quick point of information: Middle classes weren't workers of any description. They were professionals (lawyers, teachers, priests, politicians and doctors), businessmen (from shopkeepers to industrialists who own vast empires of factories), and those paid to be in charge (facotry managers, government officials, etc).

Bethie's background makes her sound more like the upper end of working class, and so the Craftsman class might be more appropriate.

These class issues can be quite confusing, particularly for those in the US where it seems jobs that would be described as working class over here are considered middle class (such as those you describe in Bethie's background).

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